Waiver Wire Wednesday – Wait on a Closer

In the first edition of Waiver Wire Wednesday, I’d like cover one of my fantasy baseball rules of thumb – don’t waste a mid round draft pick on a closer. In fact, I wouldn’t even worry about drafting a closer until the very late rounds, with limited exceptions. If you have wisely drafted the majority of your starting squad in the first 9 or 10 rounds without doubling down on positions or having begun your rotation, and a top tier closer like Joe Nathan or Brad Lidge is still available, then go for it. You can’t go wrong in that situation, but it’s unlikely that it will happen because it only takes one person to pick a closer to set off a rapid fire, closer-drafting frenzy. Once that person does set off the chain reaction, play it cool and keep going about your business as usual, getting the best players available at the other positions you need.

Ok, so why undervalue the closer? First and foremost, during each baseball season, it’s pretty much a given that at least a third of MLB teams will go through a closer meltdown, leaving them scrambling for several different options. If the team is lucky, they’ll have a setup guy waiting for his big shot who can step up and get the job done. Think Brian Fuentes or Jon Rauch, who were serviceable when called upon. Otherwise a team may take a closer-by-committee approach, a la St. Louis’ Ryan Franklin and Chris Perez approach (when Izzy went mental) or Tampa Bay’s Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour, and even JP Howell when Percival was injured. In these types of situations, if you have a roster spot to play with (maybe you have someone on the DL), it’s wise to pick the best pitcher available and stash him to see what happens.

Secondly, aside from the five or six top tier closers that are dependable and consistently healthy, there isn’t much of a difference in value amongst the remaining pool of players. The simple fact is that you are likely using them to get saves, even if it costs you a little bit in the ERA and WHIP columns (but not too much, of course).
Third, it’s inevitable that closers are going to get hurt. Many of them are as fragile as a carton of eggs, and the nature of their role is one that demands excessive output. Therefore, the Chad Corderos and BJ Ryans of the world will always make drafting closers a risky business. This doesn’t mean that other players who aren’t closers aren’t going to get hurt, obviously, but it’s understood that you’re going to have some clubs with closing issues due to injuries.

So what have we learned here? Simple – let the closer frenzy go on when the first person snatches Lidge or K-Rod or Nathan and go about your business in terms of getting the best position players, or even starting pitchers in some cases, and stack your team. You won’t end up with a big name closer when the draft is said and done, but your team will have depth, and, if you do your due diligence, you’ll have plenty of opportunities throughout the season to pick up the latest closers and string enough saves together through less attractive options like Mike Gonzalez, Jonathan Broxton, Brandon Morrow, and so on. That way, when Billy Wagner gets hurt again, you won’t be kicking yourself for wasting a pick that could have been spent on a solid utility player or starting pitcher.

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